Grand Prix San Jose 2012

Sperling, Williams, and Rietzl Win San Jose

October 8-9, 2012

Grand Prix San Jose 2012

When Teams Returned to Ravnica

A whole world covered in city, and a whole convention center covered in Magic players. GP San Jose delivered an astonishingly vibrant, constantly surprising, wondrous and strange environment that thrilled and delighted in equal measure from the opening salvos of Saturday morning to the titanic tussles of Sunday night.

571 teams found their way here, their hopes and expectations buoyed by a fantastic Pre-Release weekend that saw records smashed around the world. As Return to Ravnica boosters were opened by the truckload, the tales began to pour in - tales of last-ditch victories torn from defeat, tales of Scavenged monstrosities roaming the streets, tales of lightning wins and thunderous losses, all set against a backdrop of friendship and camaraderie that few games can come close to matching.

There aren't many things that beat playing Magic for yourself, but playing Magic for a team is definitely one of them. Just ask Matt Sperling, Paul Rietzl, and David Williams, the ultimate winners of this colossal event. All have previous successes, and Rietzl can boast a Pro Tour title on his mantle. None of them have seen victories sweeter than those this weekend, with Rietzl daring to predict the result for all the world to see days before this incredible gathering.

Whether Azorius, Rakdos, Izzet, Selesnya, or Golgari, every guild contributed to the richness and depth of this fantastic new set. It's hard to convey just how much information revealed itself over the course of this weekend, and yet that information torrent is due to become a raging storm in just a few days, when the best in the world come to Seattle for Pro Tour Return to Ravnica.

For now, though, the Magic world belongs to all the teams who competed here this weekend. A familiar cry, but no less true for all that: At GP San Jose 2012, there were no losers, only winners. Now Europe can look forward to its own team Grand Prix next year, knowing that something very special is on the way.

Congratulations to Matt Sperling, David Williams, and Paul Rietzl, Champions of GP San Jose 2012.

San Jose Finalist Profiles

Lucas Siow

Who are your teammates, and why did you play with them?
Jamie Naylor and Maksym Gryn. They were the only 2 people willing to travel 3,000 miles and 50 hours with me.

What color combination did you play in Sealed, and what was your most important card?
Green-White -- Centaur Healer, and combat tricks. I didn’t play any rares.

What color combination(s) did you play in your drafts, and what were your most important cards?
Draft 1 Green-Black-Red Control -- Vraska the UnseenDraft 2 Blue-Red Aggro - Pursuit of FlightDraft 3 Blue White Fliers - Skymarc Roc

Do you prefer Team Limited, or Team Constructed?
Team Limited.

Maksym Gryn

Age: 22Hometown: TorontoOccupation: Student

Previous Magic Accomplishments:
I won a match at a Pro Tour, one time.

Who are your teammates, and why did you play with them?
I played with Lucas Siow because I asked to team with him before he Top 2’d GP Columbus.And I played with Jamie Naylor because he’s a nice guy.

What color combination did you play in Sealed, and what was your most important card?
Mono Wall 5 Color, 8 Rare Control - Axebane Guardian.

David Williams

Who are your teammates, and why did you play with them?
Sperling - Brains; Rietzl - Wild CardAlso because we get along and are great friends. We all have confidence in each other, especially in limited.

What color combination did you play in Sealed, and what was your most important card?
Golgari - Daggerdrome Imp

What color combination(s) did you play in your drafts, and what were your most important cards?
Draft 1 Selesnya -- Call of the ConclaveDraft 2 Black-Green-White - Korozda GuildmageDraft 3 Izzet - Izzet Charm x3

Paul Rietzl

Who are your teammates, and why did you play with them?
David Williams - LooksMatt Sperling - Brains

What color combination did you play in Sealed, and what was your most important card?
Black-Red-Blue sideboarded into Red-Blue. I built very wrong, my best card was Pursuit of Flight.

What color combination(s) did you play in your drafts, and what were your most important cards?
Draft 1 Red-Black-Green - Corpsejack MenaceDraft 2 Rakdos splash green and blue - Lobber CrewDraft 3 Azorious - lost all my matches, no good cards

Vassal Soul came next from Naylor, and that was currently relevant, since it was the only flyer on an increasingly busy battlefield. Sperling sent his Deathtouch Assassin into the red zone, dealing the first damage of the game to Naylor. Zanikev Locust ensured that there would be some flying defense against the Vassal Soul . A second Frostburn Weird continued to clog the table, whilst doing little to tilt the game his way.

Critically, Zanikev Locust now sat in Sperling's graveyard. Had Annihilating Fire resolved, it would have been exiled, and Scavenge would have been lost. As it was, Scavenge got double value thanks to Corpsejack Menace , and that was enough for Sperling to send everything into the red zone. Both players did the math, and the math meant Corpsejack Menace had done enough.

Sperling 1 - 0 Naylor

At this point, Williams was 1-0 up on Siow, while Rietzl and Gryn were tied at 1-1, and by the time Sperling and Naylor were ready to start game two, Siow had equalized against Williams, and Rietzl had claimed the deciding game against Gryn, meaning the Canadians would have to win all three remaining games if they were to claim the round.

Frostburn Weird faced Centaur's Herald early in game two, with Sperling having started at six cards. Izzet Charm took out the Herald before it could become a full-fledged 3/3, while Frostburn Weird attacked early and often. Faerie Imposter required Naylor to return the Frostburn, but he had the mana to recast it that same turn. When Sperling passed the turn with four mana open, Eyes in the Skies seemed likely, and when that came true Naylor had Dispel to force through six more points of damage. Sperling had nothing on board, and was down to 10 life - Frostburn Weird can do a lot of things for you.

Finals, Round One – David Williams vs. Lucas Siow

by Steven Sadin

Old school American pro David Williams made his last Grand Prix Top 8 over a decade ago. The young Canadian standout Lucas Siow, on the other hand, Top 8'ed the very last Grand Prix that he played in – making it all the way to the finals of Grand Prix Columbus before losing to Jacob Maynard.

Will David Williams be able to win the third Grand Prix of his career (with some help from his teammates)? Or will Lucas Siow be able to do one better than he did last time?

Game One

Williams opened on a Centaur's Herald (which he turned into a 3/3 at the first possible opportunity) while Siow had a Splatter Thug , a Dark Revenant , and a Golgari Keyrune to start things off. A Stab Wound transformed Siow's Splatter Thug from a threat into a liability, but an Augur Spree from Siow was all that he needed to leave the Williams in a tough spot.

With only his Stab Wound as a viable damage source, and some serious mana problems – Williams needed to draw something fast. Gatecreeper Vine helped Williams get past his mana woes, and a Sluiceway Scorpion , plus a Daggerdome Imp was enough to put Williams into the lead...

Another Stab Wound took out Siow's Dark Revenant , but it was back again a turn later. However, that turn was all that Williams needed as he was able to use that time to scavenge a pair of +1/+1 counters onto his Daggerdrome Imp .

The ensuing lifelink attack left Siow at 3, and Williams at a relatively healthy 5 life. Stab Wound knocked Siow down to 1 on his upkeep, and when his draw step failed to deliver the Canadian phenom an out, the players were off to game two.

When Williams attacked again on the following turn, Siow played an Augur Spree that he assumed would kill his opponent's 3/3 Daggerdrome Imp ... but Williams had a Savage Surge to allow his flier to not only survive the Auger Spree , but to turn the Rakdos instant into the instrument of his owner's demise.

Match to Williams, Round 1 to Williams/Sperling/Rietzl.

Finals, Round One – Paul Rietzl vs. Maksym Gryn

by AJ Sacher

It had been a long weekend, but a great one. Team Limited is not known to be one of the fastest formats, but it is known to be one of the most fun. The always affable Paul Rietzl cordially introduced himself and asked his opponent how his name was spelled.

"M-A-X....U," Rietzl asked?

"It's M-A-K-S-Y-M," Gryn spelled out for him.

"Wow, I wasn't even close," Rietzl laughed.

Gryn had the choice of play or draw, as his team entered the elimination rounds as the highest seed. He elected to play, as seems to be the standard in the budding format. He kept his hand quickly, but Rietzl looked at his hand with slight disgust and consulted his team. David Williams agreed, and Rietzl went back for six new cards. His second hand was acceptable, and the players waited for the go-ahead to start their match. During the delay, Rietzl asked tongue-in-cheek if Gryn had ever won any Grand Prix before.

"No, I've never even Day Two'd a Grand Prix before," Gryn admitted. Not a bad run for someone with such little experience. Rietzl, on the other hand, has a bit more experience at the pro level to say the least.

Game One

Gryn served up a pair of Plains over the first couple of turns, to which Rietzl returned a Mountain and Swamp . This allowed him to play the first creature of the match, an unleashed Grim Roustabout .

Gryn's third turn was simply another Plains , while Rietzl smashed in for two before bolstering his board with a Lobber Crew . Gryn dropped into thought. After asking Rietzl how many cards he had in his hand, Gryn simply passed the turn back with three Plains untapped. Did he decide not to use an Avenging Arrow on the unleashed Undead or was it a ruse?

An Island off of the top of Gryn's deck allowed a Skymark Roc to come into play, but Rietzl had his maindeck Aerial Predation to take care of that, clearing the way for him to attack for two more damage. Gryn tried once again to slow Rietzl down, using a Voidwielder to return the Lobber Crew , but a hasty Dreg Mangler took the defender's place. When the Voidwielder tried to block, Rietzl used a Dynacharge to make sure the large defender was out of the picture permanently.

Gryn's addition of a Selesnya Sentry didn't seem like that big of a threat, but an Ethereal Armor turned it into a much scarier 4/3 first striker. Rietzl could only replay his Lobber Crew and pass the turn back. The 4/3 Sentry took to the offensive on Gryn's turn, dropping Rietzl from 22 to 18. This was a risky attack, as it seemed racing was a losing proposition from that game state.

On the following turn, the Dreg Mangler attacked past Gryn's 2/2 only to be struck down on Rietzl's end step by the Avenging Arrow that he had telegraphed earlier. Golgari Longlegs and a 6/4 unleashed Spawn of Rix Maadi may have looked intimidating on other boards, but Gryn's 4/3 first-striking Sentry made Rietzl's completely ineffective. With no attacks, Rietzl's crew could only lob damage in one-point increments.

With Gryn sieged down to 6 life, Rietzl took pause to see what kind of attacks he could make. Thanks to a scavenged Dreg Mangler , Rietzl's Spawn of Rix Maadi got 3 more +1/+1 counters, making it a perfect target for Gryn's Tristani's Judgment.

Gryn played a Sunspire Griffin , looking to get some sort of offensive going. Rietzl's Lobber Crew continued to tick away at his life total, and the Pro Tour champion cooly added a Towering Indrik to his board to defend against the new flier. Time was running out, and Gryn seemed to be quite flooded, playing his ninth land. After a quick consultation with his team, Rietzl decided it was safe to attack with all of his creatures to close the game out a turn quicker than otherwise planned.

Rietzl 1 - Gryn 0

Game Two

Both players kept their initial hands with little fanfare. Gryn took the play again, this time kicking things off with a Precinct Captain , remarking, "That's pretty good on turn 2." Rietzl definitely agreed. After taking a hit, he was facing down a token and a New Prahv Guildmage as well. Rietzl missed his third land drop and had to discard. Another turn of taking a substantial beating and having to discard, Rietzl decided that it was time to pick 'em up. While it's never fun to see someone get mana screwed, I can't help but think that Gryn was grinning a little on the inside at the essentially free game win.

Rietzl 1 - Gryn 1

Now it was Rietzl's turn to go first. He kept his hand, but Gryn mulliganned. While he shuffled, Rietzl did a number of things:

Turned his baseball cap around, from backwards to forward.

Complained about the cold.

Refused to put on his jacket, which was over his chair.

Asked his opponent what part of Canada he was from ("Toronto").

Asked if he spoke French ("no").

Said that he had some friends from Canada, and that they spoke French. ("...Ok").

The final game's decisions began on turn three, as Rietzl considered his plays. He considered his options, nearly going to consult his teammates before brushing off the notion. "No, forget it; I'm on my own." He cast a Rakdos Keyrune off of a Transguild Promenade and it seemed like his colors were set. The mana rock accelerated him into an unleashed Spawn of Rix Maadi , dwarfing the Sunspire Griffin of his opponent.

Rietzl activated his Keyruneand sent it attacking next to a freshly cast Dreg Mangler . Gryn didn't make it to the Finals by having nothing. Four mana later and he was the proud new owner of a Hussar Squad, flashing in to eat the Keyrune. Despite the heroics, a whopping nine damage still came through. As Gryn tried to establish a stake on the board, Rietzl's relentless aggression was backed with the necessary tricks to keep Gryn spinning on his back foot. Falling to a meager 3 life and losing his only blocker to an overloaded Dynacharge , Gryn was looking for a way out. A Voidwielder put the Spawn back into Rietzl's hand and threatened to keep his 3/3 at bay indefinitely, but an Auger Spree to remove the potential blocker allowed a lethal final attack, and the Canadian extended the hand.

Despite starting significantly after the other two matches and playing all three games, it was the first match of the finals to complete, and put the Americans 1-0 over Canada.

Paul Rietzl 2 - Maksym Gryn 1

Finals, Round Two – Paul Rietzl vs. Lucas Siow

by AJ Sacher

Siow played first, as his team got to do in Game One of every match of these finals, but he wasn't really able to take advantage of the implied tempo advantage without any early plays. Rietzl's multicolor deck took the early turns to develop its mana, curving a Rakdos Guildgate into a Transguild Promenade into a Golgari Keyrune , before topping all of that off with an unleashed Spawn of Rix Maadi .

Siow's first play was a fairly inconspicuous Golgari Decoy , but just when the American team was poking fun of the Mountain standing awkwardly among Siow's board of Golgari colored lands, he played an Island and boomed a Hypersonic Dragon onto the table, tapped and attacking.

You know what they say: one good turn deserves another. Rietzl had an Auger Spree for the Dragon and a Dynacharge d Drainpipe Vermin to trade with the Decoy, taking back the advantage and forcing Gryn to discard. Siow used his second main phase simply to Skullrend Rietzl's last two cards (which I argue should hit Matt Sperling and David Williams as well). He would try to deal with his board next turn.

After discarding his hand of two lands, Rietzl drew and played another land, activating his Keyrune and attacked for eight, dropping Siow to 6 life. The elusive and rare defensive Rakdos Shred-Freak decided to Pursue Flight , looking to block and trade with the Spawn, but a 6/2 hasted first-striker (stats you do not often see on the same creature) off of the top for Rietzl provided an exciting way to close out the game. On the back of a Minotaur Aggressor , Rietzl locked up the first game of Round 2.

Paul Rietzl 1 – Lucas Siow 0

As they shuffled up for game two, Rietzl asked Siow if he had ever seen It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and followed-up with an inquiry as to his team's dynamic: "Who's the looks, who's the brains, and who's the wildcard." Siow's teammates seemed a little reserved and hesitant towards the question, but Siow didn't blink before rattling off the roles: He had Jamie Naylor as the looks, Maksym Gryn as the wildcard, and [obviously] himself as the brains.

Siow went on the play again, and his Rakdos Shred-Freak took to the offensive this game, but the turn-three Transguild Promenade wasn't the aggressive follow up he was looking for. Meanwhile, Rietzl missed his third land drop for a turn, but recovered nicely with a Chromatic Lantern on the next turn.

Lobber Crew and Dreg Mangler looked to try and stabilize Rietzl's board, but a Traitorous Instinct on the 3/3 was a scary moment for the Americans, as Rietzl fell to 1 on the attack. The silver lining of having to take so much damage was that he was able to trade his Golgari Keyrune for the Racketeer, who had completed his Pursuit of Flight , before it took to the skies to finish things.

With his opponent at 1, the ever-bold Siow told everyone in the feature match area outright that he wanted to Skullrend for the win. Begging his deck for the necessary fifth mana, he missed for a couple of times while Rietzl scrambled, trying to close the game out as soon as possible.

With the other matches paused, the focus of all six players was directed to the nail-biter at hand. Siow was trying to buy as much time as possible, as each turn that he survived was another chance at drawing a land for the lethal burn/discard spell he claimed was in his hand. Meanwhile, Rietzl was trying to get him dead as quickly as possible for the inverse reason. Talking over the board with his team, he even took the time to consider the possibility that Siow was bluffing and didn't have the Skullrend at all. After thinking it through, the line he took was to play out all of his creatures in the hopes of closing out the game with a giant alpha-strike.

Siow, who had already shown a sheer defiance toward the concept of a poker face by outright stating the card in his hand that he was trying to use to win the game, openly laughed as he drew, playing a Rakdos Guildgate from the top of his deck.

One more turn was all he needed.

Siow tapped out for another blocker and passed the turn, hoping he could see just one more main phase. Rietzl had other ideas. After a quick double check, Rietzl proclaimed that he had it. Lobber Crew gets a bonus shot in thanks to an Auger Spree , taking out a blocker. All of Rietzl's guys hit the red zone, and it added up to "just enough." Siow died with the lethal burn spell going off on his next turn, putting the Americans up a round and a match.

You know things aren't going well when you cast Viashino Racketeer , and then discard Annihilating Fire in search of a land, and that's where Naylor headed next. Chorus of Might from Williams was a horrible blowout, meaning it was hard to see where any semblance of a game plan was going to come from for Naylor.

Williams 1 - 1 Naylor.

Meanwhile, Gryn had taken the second game against Sperling, meaning both the remaining matches were all square at 1-1, with the Canadians Gryn and Naylor needing to win to force a deciding set. The Sperling v Gryn match would be up first, meaning that the decider here would either mean everything - or wouldn't happen at all if Sperling won to claim the title for his team.

...

Those three characters above denote a lot of time passing, but Gryn kept the dream alive, winning the decider against Sperling, leading to this...

Talking of seconds, a second Voidwielder intriguingly returned Gatecreeper Vine to hand, allowing Naylor to drop Williams to nine. With Rogue's Passage amongst his lands, Naylor was looking to ride unblockability to the final few points. He cast Teleportal and attacked, dropping Williams to just two life.

You know what happened, right?

Time for a third and deciding set.

Sperling, Rietzl, Williams 1 - 1 Gryn, Siow, Naylor

Finals, Round Two – David Williams vs. Maksym Gryn

by Steven Sadin

Williams, and Rietzl were able to win their first rounds – securing the first round of the finals for the Americans before Sperling could even finish his match. But now they're onto the second round of the Finals and the Canadians now find themselves with somewhat more favorable matchups.

Game Two

What Gryn didn't know was that Sperling had two Giant Growth s in his hand that would allow him to take the game out of nowhere should Gryn allow himself to take a hit that would leave himself at a seemingly healthy 6 life.

However, Gryn didn't need to dip that low – as a Seller of Songbirds , plus a couple of Ethereal Armor s allowed him to even the score while still at a (actually) healthy life total.

Gryn hoped that a Selesnya Sentry enchanted with Ethereal Armor might stave off Sperling's offenses – but when Sperling brazenly attacked his Korozda Monitor , and Thrill Kill-Assassin into his opponent's 4/3 first striker, Gryn knew that there was a trick coming.

After consulting with his teammates, Gryn shrugged and put his enchanted Selesnya Sentry in front of his opponent's 3/3. Sperling then used a Golgari Charm to destroy the Ethereal Armor , allowing him to trade his Korozda Monitor for the Selesnya Sentry – an exchange that was "way better" than Gryn was expecting. Not only that, but Sperling forgot to trample over -- saving Gryn a life point, and prompting Paul Rietzl to shake his head.

A Chorus of Might , and an Aerial Predation allowed Sperling to make some headway – but he couldn't find an opening to get Gryn below 3 life. And from that point on, things just got worse and worse for Sperling as Gryn had plenty of mana to detain all of Sperling's best creatures.

Ethereal Armor , followed by Precinct Captain made it impossible for Sperling to get in any profitable attacks with the meager creatures that Gryn was willing to leave un-detained.

Game Two

But before the Naylor could even draw for his fourth turn, he found out that his two teammates had lost – making Paul Rietzl, David Williams, and Matt Sperling your Grand Prix San Jose Champions!

Finals, Round Three – David Williams vs. Maksym Gryn

by AJ Sacher

In the deciding round of the finals, relative newcomer Maksym Gryn of Canada faced off against the American poker superstar and Pro Tour mainstay, David Williams, as fellow bracelet holder and the Chuck Berry of Magic lingo, Kenny Hsuing, looked on.

A gigantic advantage throughout the Finals has been the higher seed allowing the Canadian team the option to play first in every match, and Gryn used that advantage to full effect in the first game, leading with a Precinct Captain on turn two. Williams had an answer in a rare of his own: Lotleth Troll . Thinking aloud, Gryn recognized that he could attack and threaten/offer to trade two creatures from Williams's hand for his first-striker. He decided to attack, even before playing a third land, and Williams obliged by pitching two scavenge creatures and eating the 2/2.

Gryn curved beautifully, following his Precinct Captain with a Security Blockade , Skymark Roc , and a Void weilder, bouncing the Lotleth Troll , resetting its two +1/+1 counters. Williams is no pushover, though, and he rebuilt, playing a Korozda Monitor before replaying his Troll. He scavenged one of the creatures in his graveyard to keep his Troll out of reach of the Roc's triggered ability.

Up until that point, this game had been played at a blistering pace (The Americans had flights to catch), but Williams slowed significantly and took the time to survey the board and consider his options. He came out of the tank with a Coursers' Accord , which didn't appear to do much against Gryn's army of fliers. It looked all but lost for Williams facing lethal damage on the next attack, all of it in the air, with a hand of only one card. But then, seemingly out of nowhere, a Swamp off of the top of his deck gave him the eighth mana he needed for the plan he had sculpted the turn before. A Korozda Guildmage gave his Lotleth Troll and a 3/3 both +1/+1 and intimidate, making them unblockable. This allowed him to attack for just enough to kill a shellshocked Gryn through his Security Blockade .

After consulting their respective teams, both players chose to keep. Williams' teammate, Paul Rietzl was confused, "Why even ask me? I never mulligan!"

After keeping a five-land hand with a four- and a five-drop, Williams perfectly curved two through five while Gryn simply played three Island s, discarded, and conceded. There isn't much that can be said about that game, which makes me self-conscious about the length of my write-up. Not every match has to have multiple pages written about it, you know. Some readers even prefer shorter write-ups; it's more comfortable for them. Besides, it doesn't even matter how long the report is; it's about the quality of the writing anyway.

Ahem.

Yes.

So Williams curved out on Gryn, who never got to cast a spell. A sympathetic but relieved Williams then had watch as his teammates held his fate in their hands, while a Gryn that was certainly not grinning had to look on and hope that his buddies could pull it out.

Perilous Shadow pumped twice (i.e. +4/+4) to kill off the Axebane Guardian , while Sperling had mana to spend on a creature rather than activations, laying Towering Indrik . Next turn, it was a triple pump that saw Sperling down to 8 life, once again at the cost to Siow of not developing the board. When Sperling got to six mana, he cast Coursers' Accord , generating a pair of 3/3s. He was willing to trade his Towering Indrik for four of Siow's mana next turn, as the Perilous Shadow continued to threaten.

Talking of Perilous Shadow , though, that's quite a combo with Golgari Decoy , when everything has to block the Decoy. It worked for Siow, and he pumped the Perilous Shadow yet again to take the match into a deciding game 3.

Williams led Gryn 1-0, while Naylor now led Rietzl 1-0. How costly would that 39th card error be? When Williams took the second game over Gryn, a win for Sperling here would be the end.

Guildgates led on both sides. Dead Reveler came with a counter from Sperling, while Siow passed after laying his third land. Korozda Monitor was good news for Sperling on turn four, and even more so when Siow didn't lay a fourth land. When Sperling cast Dreg Mangler the end was near. Siow drew, and found no answer - there probably wasn't one anywhere.

Game, set, match.

Congratulations to Matt Sperling, Paul Rietzl, and David Williams, Champions of GP San Jose 2012.

Top 5 Cards

It's easy to look at the super-powerful gold cards, the signature cards from each of the Guilds, and those one-offs that scream quality. That isn't where high level Magic is generally won and lost, however, so this edition of Top 5 Cards is brought to you in association with the five colors of Magic. These cards aren't all showy. Some of them are far from raw power. What they all share, however, is the ability to turn a game in your direction, whether it's early, middle, or late game.

Knightly Valor - A five mana creature enchantment? That can't be right, surely? And yet, game after game, players with access to white mana were running this every time. Why? Because +2+2 turned out to be a big deal. Because in tight races Vigilance turned out to be a big deal. And because a 2/2 with Vigilance was just what you wanted to shore up the defenses against Rakdos. If you were Selesnya, this was good. If you were Azorius, it was better, and if you weren't either, you learned to curse Knightly Valor this weekend.

Voidwielder - Just like Knightly Valor , the raw numbers on Voidwielder made people think it couldn't be good. That was a reasonable assumption coming in, given a diet of Unsummon , or Æther Adept , or any number of apparently more efficient bounce effects. R&amp;D knew how to cost this, however, in a set with so many Selesnya tokens running around. Voidwielder is no mere Horned Turtle with a costly bounce effect. Sometimes it's a straight kill spell. Even when it isn't, it's a stealer of turns, a huge tempo swing, and a defensive guy with the Magic number of 4 sitting on the backside. Against Azorius, you knew you were going to face it, and you knew you weren't going to like it.

Pack Rat - Anytime a theoretical 1/1 for two mana is the only spell you ever need to cast to win the game, you need to pay attention. Pack Rat doesn't just do that in some games, in the fairytale world of Best Case Scenario Mentality, Pack Rat destroys people almost any time you cast it on turn two and then lay a land on turn three with the Rat still on the battlefield. Like a hideous version of 15 reds in snooker, you get a 1/1, two 2/2s, three 3/3s, four 4/4s, and then generally a jump to six 6/6s at six mana. Nothing in recent Magic history has screamed, 'Kill me! Kill me now!' more loudly than Pack Rat .

Tenement Crasher - This card may be red, but it's far more at home in Rakdos than Izzet, and it's a good bet that it will find a home in Gruul early next year. It turns out that this format almost always allows you to reach six mana, and alongside Traitorous Instinct this is one of those 'straw that breaks the camel's back' kind of cards. Again, it doesn't sound like it's going to be super-good. It's common, so we shouldn't expect too much. What we get is a ground-pounding finisher in an environment where Haste turns out to really, really matter when it comes to getting the Rakdos job done.

Axebane Guardian - Remember when green was all about the fixing and the ramp? In that case, you remember today, when Axebane Guardian did sterling work for all kinds of decks. With resources tight on day two, six player drafts led to many three color decks, and Axebane Guardian was the glue that made it all work. Even without fixing, Golgari decks loved the Guardian for ramping them towards their more efficient mid and late game, while comedy jokers the world over rejoiced at the possibilities of Doorkeeper decks. Goodness knows what you'll be able to do with this once Gatecrash turns up. For now, be grateful for the opportunities presented by this and the likes of Lobber Crew and Ogre Jailbreaker . Defenders have never been so sexy.